The first comprehensive marine fish stock assessment for India reveals a surprisingly positive picture: 91.1% of 135 fish stocks evaluated in 2022 were found to be “healthy”. The two-year break in fishing activity caused by the pandemic may have played a big role, experts said.
Out of the 135 stocks, 86.7% were found to be sustainable – meaning that they had enough Population to support maximum sustainable yields. Sustainable stocks included certain varieties of dolphinfish, eels, lizardfish and snappers, as well as pomfret.
Regionally, the southeast coast had the highest Percentage of healthy stocks (97.4%) in 2022, followed by the southwest (92.7%), the northeast (87.5%), and the northwest was at the lowest at 83.8%.
Overall, the assessment found 8.2% of stocks to be overfished, including varieties of croakers, catfish, groupers, sharks, and lobsters, and about 4.4% were tending to be overfished. An overfished stock is one whose or population is too small and fishing pressure too high to support maximum sustainable yields. However, none of the stocks assessed had collapsed – that is when a population has fallen to such a low level that it does not recover within a certain time.